About

Our Mission

Marietta Community Foundation, by serving as manager and distributor of donated funds, supports philanthropy and the efforts of citizens to improve natural, human and civic resources. An advocate for a strong and active sense of community, the Foundation is attentive to today's needs, yet attuned to tomorrow's opportunities.

Our History

The Marietta Community Foundation was founded in 1974 and headed by the late Carl L. Broughton. The Foundation became relatively dormant before being reactivated in 1992 through a sizable gift from two former Marietta residents, Mary Carolyn McCoy Mildren and William E. Mildren Sr. They established a trust in memory of their late parents to be used as a challenge grant encouraging community leader Robert E. Kirkbride to revitalize the Foundation.

Under Kirkbride's supervision, a new Board of Governors was formed. In 1995, the Foundation received a bequest of $2.4 million from the late Lillian Strecker Smith. This exceptionally generous gift , along with many others to follow, provided the Foundation with unrestricted resources that makes it the envy of small community foundations everywhere. It also allows the Foundation to maintain its commitment of administering more than 241 different funds without charging an administration fee.

Today, the Marietta Community Foundation has grown to more than $16 million in assets and oversees more than 241 funds. More importantly, it has also distributed more than $12 million to charities in the Mid-Ohio Valley since its creation.